


The College Trip

by shouldgowork



Category: Z Nation (TV)
Genre: Gen, post S2E02, slight fudging of who is and isn't there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 16:24:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12236460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shouldgowork/pseuds/shouldgowork
Summary: In need of supplies and a break, the group find themselves at an abandoned college. But is all as it seems?





	The College Trip

1.

‘Ok everyone, take 5.’ Warren said, virtually dropping to the ground. She heard corresponding thumps around her, though no one was in the mood to reply. She took small sips from her dwindling water supply and stared off into the distance for what felt like half an hour. She couldn’t remember clearly now when they’d last been out of these hills, and the trees went on and on in all directions, upwards and downwards, as far as she could see. Their path seemed never ending.

‘Where are we?’ Murphy asked

‘Middle of nowhere.’ She replied stonily.

‘Ok but _actually_ where are we? And for how much longer?’

‘We’ve still got a long ways to go.’ Warren said, taking the map from the top of her bag and pointing to it, feeling the others crowding around her.  ‘Up through here-‘

 ‘Oh hey, look at that! We’re only 15 miles away from Redwood.’ Doc said, jabbing his finger at the map.

‘The college?’ Addy asked, jumping up more animatedly than they’d seen her in weeks.

‘Yeah! Oh, _man_ , the memories. Not that I went to Redwood, of course.’ He started chuckling to himself, and a hundred half-remembered scenes, hazy, as if viewed through a cloud of smoke (which was, if he was being honest with himself, factually accurate) came to mind.

‘You’ve never mentioned any before.’ 10K added almost accusingly.

‘They’re not really fit for young ears, kid. But,’ he continued, at 10K’s outraged expression, ‘if you want, I’ll tell you sometime anyway.’

‘We should go there.’ Addy chipped in quietly.

‘Why?’

Addy had only been in college for a few months when Z day happened, a period of her life so joyfully hedonistic and care-free she had not often allowed herself to think of it in the years that followed. But right now the memories had a pull she found nearly irresistible; there was no Mack. No guilt, no regret, no terrifying loneliness.

‘They had a great med school. We’re running really low on some supplies that might just be there.’ She replied.

‘She’s right.’ Doc added before Warren had time to open her mouth. Good for Addy, he thought to himself, for being so sensible; but he had only two goals in mind. Firstly, to show 10K, even in sketch form, the college life he would never now be able to experience. And secondly, and most importantly, to sweep the college for the weed he bet his life was all over the place.

‘We can at least go and look. If it’s swarming with Zs we don’t need to get too close, and if it’s not, there’s a hundred things we need that might still be in a place like that.’ Murphy added with his most guiltless expression while thinking of cheerleader Zs and their endless possibilities, and his eternal willingness to put off their journey’s end.

Even 10K nodded, thinking of college gun clubs and the possible leftovers, and the promise of Doc’s stories.

Warren was nobody’s fool. Doc and 10K were practically rubbing their hands with glee, Murphy had the mock-innocent expression that she had come to dread, but, she thought, without seriously bad intention. This time at least. Addy looked as haunted as she always did these days, her eyes boring into Roberta’s own, pleading. Frustratingly, she couldn’t even fault their pretexts as flimsy; supplies were getting low, and morale was even lower, and both could clearly be boosted by this damned detour. She sighed heavily.

‘We check it out from this hill.’ She said, snatching the map back from Doc and pointing to a theoretically safe vantage point. ‘We see anything more than a _single_ Z near the entrance, we leave.’

None of them could argue with that, and they set off with a brisker pace than they’d been able to manage for days.

They stopped for the night couple of miles away from their destination, far earlier than normal. No one complained or tried to press on; the majority desperate to hold on to hope even if it were only until morning, and Warren hardly so cruel as to deprive them of it unnecessarily.

By a couple of hours after dawn, they’d made it to the bottom of the hill, all hoping, except Warren, to see nothing. The hedges at the college entrance were quickly growing into small forests and weeds were springing up everywhere, but there were, to everyone’s surprise, no Zs in sight. With the gates to the front still firmly closed but easily scalable to a person, it was just possible that this was a haven of the sort they hadn’t seen in a long time.

Possible but unlikely.

‘Aw, c’mon Warren, there’s none around. Let’s go down there!’ Doc begged.

‘Wait, I see something.’ 10K said.

‘What is it?’

‘I’m not sure, exactly. Take a look at the white marks on the ground.’

She took the binoculars from him and scanned the area he pointed at. As her eyes adjusted to the brightness she could see for herself the line of arrows, done in chalk and nearly faded, that pointed from the front gate to one of the main buildings.

‘Huh.’

‘Huh, what?’ Said Murphy, irritably.

‘There’s a welcome mat. Those white marks are a path. But it could be really old, whoever left it could be long gone.’

‘Not likely, though. Chalk doesn’t last _that_ long.’ Doc chimed in hopefully.

‘Could be a trap, then.’

‘Or it might not be. Might be someone who can give us what we need.’

‘We should get in closer and check it out.’  

‘No harm in getting a little bit closer.’ 10K added. Addy, saying nothing, made her views known by looking both miserable and pleading.

Again, Warren could see she was fighting a losing battle. To stop so close to their destination was clearly too much, as Doc, 10K and Murphy were alternating looking at the campus with hunger in their eyes, and looking at her balefully. And they _did_ need a few things that, by the looks of it, they’d find here; the place looked like it hadn’t been picked over much at all.

‘I guess if we’re on our guard…’ She began doubtfully.

‘Exactly! Would you bet on anyone over 10K in a shootout?’ Murphy said, grabbing the boy and patting his shoulder; where he would normally have shrugged him off, he nodded fervently, both ignoring the fact that 10K had three bullets left in total. Sighing reluctantly, Warren led them down the hill and over the gate. The marks led into, and down, the hallway of the main building on the front quad, and into what must have been the main hall.

They were met by an impressive set up; a tall barricade of tables and chairs impossible to shamble across but perfectly possible to climb if you wished to; in other words, Z proof but open to visitors in a similar way to the front gate.

‘Anybody home?’ Warren shouted; no reply. Addy cautiously scaled the barricade and poked her head over the top. She was greeted by possibly the most surprising sight of the entire apocalypse.

A man lying, no, not lying, _reclining_ on the floor, stretched out with his eyes closed and headphones in his ears, tapping his toes along to the beat without a care in the world. She didn’t know humanity was still capable of relaxing in this way, not even Citizen Z in his lonely base.

‘Well what is it?’ Warren shouted up to her. Before she had a chance to even begin to explain the sight, he became aware he was being watched and opened his eyes, staring at Addy for a second until he scrabbled behind an overturned desk.

‘I- I don’t have-‘ He stammered from his hiding place. She gingerly climbed over and approached it.

‘I’m Addy.’ She said, poking her head around the side of it. ‘I’m here with some friends. We’re just passing through, looking for a couple of things. We’re not gonna hurt you.’

He squinted at her for a second, then relaxed and crawled out, watching suspiciously as the others climbed over. He stayed watchfully silent as they introduced themselves.

‘I’m Robert.’ He said, finally.

‘You here by yourself?’ Warren asked somewhat redundantly; the small nest of bedding in the corner, pile of books, music player and portable DVD player answered her question well enough. He nodded nonetheless and continued to watch them silently.

‘Sorry.’ He said after a little while, ‘It’s been a long time since I saw people round here. I’m kind of out of practice.’

‘Really? You can’t tell.’ Murphy piped up, though Robert thought that in all honesty he was being polite not to ask about the stranger’s ashy complexion.

‘You said you were looking for some stuff, don’t suppose any of that’s food? You all look like you haven’t eaten in days.’

‘Bingo, genius.’ Murphy said again, ignoring the small punch to his back that he supposed came from Addy.

‘I guess back before Z-day, this was breakfast time.’ He said, shoving his rats nest of bedding to one side and retrieving a few tins from his previous hiding place, and they piled onto them, Doc pausing just long enough to give the man a rib-cracking hug before lunging at a tin of spam.

They ate in relaxed silence, a couple of them even ate reclining on their sides, just because they could. Addy lay flat on her back, eyes closed, taking in the strong scent of varnished wood, allowing herself to remember the lectures she’d spent idly picking the stuff off desks and staring out of the window. Perhaps, she thought to herself, she could just stay here, in this pit, until it was all over one way or another. Why should she not? Who had the right to stop her?

 ‘So Robert, mandatory apocalypse question here, how did you survive?’ Warren asked as she scraped the dregs from her tin, breaking Addy’s peace.

He laughed too loudly, filling the cavernous room with echoes, his head in his hands. ‘I just got lucky. I was locked in my room for a week straight, finishing a chapter of my thesis. I’d put myself on an internet ban, and ignored every knock at my door. Only realised they hadn’t been knocks when I opened it to check what the smell was outside, and- well. You can guess the rest. By then, I was the only one left.’ He had started to tremble and Addy rose and rubbed soothing circles into his shoulder.

‘So you haven’t left the campus?’

‘Haven’t had to. But I’ve gotten the picture, people pass through here sometimes, never stick around long. Less and less often, though. I haven’t seen anyone since the winter.’

‘Surprised no one’s stuck around.’

‘I always ask them to. Guess I’m really annoying.’ He said, smiling self-deprecatingly as everyone but Addy rolled their eyes. ‘And they always seem to have somewhere else to be going. Speaking of-‘

‘Yeah, speaking of, we’re in need of some medical supplies.’ Warren said, cutting off the question though for once even if this boy did realise who Murphy was, he was hardly likely to challenge them for ownership. ‘You know where around here we could find some?’

He nodded, absent-mindedly grabbing a pad of paper and a pencil out of the pile. He began hastily sketching a map for them, and drawing arrows, while explaining the route to the former medical school a little way across the campus.

‘I know it’s been picked over by others passing through, but this was a world-class place, there was _tons_ of that stuff here. There’s just one problem.’

‘Isn’t there always?’ Addy said.

‘The place has a few of _them_. I managed to lure the ones hanging around here into the building you want and shut them in.’

‘We’ll manage.’ Warren replied, with a look at Murphy, who grizzled but nodded; his own plans would clearly have to wait. ‘If Addy comes with us too.’

She nodded reluctantly, having hoped she could stay on the floor right where she was for a little longer.

‘Can you mark on the map where the college gym is? Just… curious.’ Murphy asked and Robert quickly sketched the route, as he and everyone else stared at the man with a mixed range of emotions from curiosity to suspicion to disgust. To all Murphy merely shrugged.

‘I’ll take 10k. We can look around for some ammo, if Robert can also show us where the gun range was.’ Doc said.

‘Good plan Doc.’ Warren agreed.

‘Doc?’ Robert said, perking up. ‘You’re a doctor?’

‘Well, sort of. More of an… _academic_ variety so if you had a rash or something to show me I wouldn’t bother.’

‘That’s alright. Just a chest complaint I’ve had for a while.’ He said, patting the offending area.

‘Son, if that’s the worst thing you have to complain about these days, I’d stay put where you are.’ Doc replied laughing, and Robert managed a timid smile in response.

‘ _No one’s visited here since the winter, and it’s high summer now.’_ Addy thought sadly as she watched him. It seemed so cruel that they would leave him the next day to wait for however long until the next group turned up. Which in itself, judging by the groups they’d met, was hardly any better than solitude.

‘Well then, Robert, if you don’t mind, we’ll leave you to your own devices for a while. We’ll come back as soon as possible, tell you all the terrible things we’ve seen on the way here.’

‘Thanks.’ He said, rather uncertainly, as he watched them climb their way back up the barricade.

 

2.

‘So, Doc, where are these stories you promised me?’ 10K said, as they followed the route the boy had pointed out to them, keeping an eye out for any unwanted visitors, though the place was a quiet and tranquil as it had appeared from a distance.

‘I tell you what, for every bag of weed you find me you get a story, each more toe-curling than the last.’

The boy laughed, a rare sound from him, and one it always delighted Doc to hear. He wondered, as he so frequently did, what 10K would be doing if the world hadn’t turned to shit. He would surely be of college age by now or near; Doc wasn’t exactly sure. He was clever, that much was clear. He’d have gotten into somewhere good, though to do what was a complete mystery, as all the talent and perseverance he’d been blessed with had been poured into killing long before they met.

‘You ok?’ 10K asked suddenly, and Doc wondered he long he’d been silent.

‘What? Oh, yeah. Just sad you haven’t found any weed yet.’

‘We’re still outside.’

‘Yeah, people used to just leave it laying around.’

‘I’m not falling for this again.’ He said with deep suspicion, thinking of the many times Doc had convinced him of ridiculous things in the past, only to have one of the others eventually crack and tell him.

‘It’s only a slight exaggeration. Back when I was at college, it was parties every night, drinking, smoking, all sorts of… stuff…’ He said, trailing off with vague gestures.

‘Really?’

‘It was for me. Might be why I failed.’ He replied sheepishly.

‘Might be. In any case I’d better be hearing about it soon - I think we’re at the right spot.’ 10K said, pointing to a likely-looking building with the door wide open; a promising sign that there weren’t Zs inside, though nothing was certain, and the place was altogether too quiet for his taste.  

‘Let’s check it out.’

 

3.

The other group found their way with as little adventure, though they could hear scratching and shuffling before they even got into the building.

‘Nothing I can’t handle.’ Murphy said, swaggering confidently to the front of the trio, ‘and when this is done I expect at least an hour to myself to… _explore_.’

‘Deal. As long as you promise to never use that tone of voice again.’ Warren said, shuddering at the emphasis he placed on the last word.

‘I promise nothing.’ He said, opening the door. Anti-climactically, the corridor itself was empty; it seemed that whatever was in here was confined to one or several rooms, though Warren would have put money on those being the very rooms they had to enter. They swept their way along, and still nothing came for them.

 ‘Something’s not right, but I can’t put my finger on it.’ Warren whispered, Murphy nodded.

‘I hope we don’t figure it out till we’re on the way out of here.’

‘Amen to that.’ 

They climbed up the stairs, following the signs towards a repository, pointedly avoiding acknowledging the blood streaked along the walls. All too soon, though, _they_ came shambling out from various doorways in small throngs, some clearly once researchers, still with coats and goggles, though far more were the vestiges of the student population. Others though, kitted out for the wilderness, seemed to have somehow gotten lost in here since the outbreak. As with one mind they all suddenly stopped their approach and began to shamble back where they had come from, leaving the visitors to their search.

‘Thanks, Murphy.’

‘Any time.’

Warren held her tongue on reminding him of the many times he had not, in fact, helped them as Addy rolled her eyes.

‘I think it’s at the other end of this corridor, according to Rob’s map.’ She said, following the pencilled lines with her finger and looking at the closed door ahead of them. It had a glass portal in the window and Warren scoped it out. The door had clearly once been locked, though the lock itself had long been forced open, and she could see why. The space inside had the definite look of being off-bounds; unpainted walls, a metal floor and endless trollies with flasks and folders on them. She opened the door quietly and pushed Murphy inside to go ahead; though his mind control trick was handy in a pinch, it wouldn’t do to be caught unawares.

‘It’s empty.’ He said after a very half-hearted look around, though it did indeed appear to be empty.

‘It should be down here at the end.’

‘And then we can get the hell out of here and have a bit of fun.’ Murphy said, stomping off down the corridor.

The offices situated along this row were few in number and empty of anything useful. Except for a few batteries in a desk drawer and a pen knife, Murphy also took some sort of vicious pleasure in removing a ‘Keep calm and carry on’ poster off the wall and stuffing it into his pocket.

They continued their fruitless search until they came to the last door before the corridor turned, a store room just as indicated on the plan. Warren shined her torch through the glass part of the door, the light falling on various promising cardboard boxes, vials and tabs of pills.

‘Jackpot.’ She said, allowing herself a grin, as she turned the handle on the door.

It didn’t budge.

She tried again, pushing harder. Addy tried instead, heaving the handle to and fro, finally giving up with a small shriek and kicking the door as hard as she could.

Warren had only just opened her mouth to warn the girl to remain quiet and calm when the familiar sound of scrabbling sent icy chills down her spine.

‘Just puppies and kittens.’ She whispered instead, tightening her grip on her machete as the scratching, shuffling noises approached them. As the Zs turned the corner, she was surprised to see she hadn’t exactly been wrong.

How had she been so stupid. This was a research facility, they’d avoided enough Zs in white coats and face masks downstairs to demonstrate that. But Warren had forgotten – they’d _all_ forgotten, the test subjects. An army of rodents, rats, mice, rabbits and others no longer identifiable, were racing towards them, covering the floor, running up the walls, and in danger of dropping down from the ceiling itself if they didn’t get the hell out of there.

Warren felt adrenaline course through her as they sprinted back along the corridor, suddenly very aware of her exposed ankles, of the thinness of her socks. If the rats reached them, there was nothing she could do. She imagined trying to shake off a hundred scurrying creatures and felt a wave of nausea, the sounds of frantic scurrying and scrabbling turning her stomach more and more.

‘Do the thing!’ Addy shrieked over her shoulder at Murphy.

‘I don’t think it works on rodents.’ He replied through gritted teeth, pushing them both on ahead of him towards the door, though the swarm was catching up, the small, scratching noises getting closer. Addy grabbed frantically at the broken door handle with shaking fingers, desperate hands grabbing at her back.

 

4.

‘Well that was…’ Doc said, collapsing unhappily onto the verge outside the gun range.

‘Yep.’ 10K replied.

‘At least you got something out of it.’

’13 bullets? From an entire gun range?’

‘All I found was half a pack of painkillers. And I know you’ll say that’s more useful, but I’d swap it for one puff.’  He said, stretching out ruefully and staring up at the bright sky above.

‘It’s hard to imagine.’ 10K said, sitting down next to his companion, looking across the silent expanse of buildings in front of them.

‘Imagine what?’

‘That so many people lived here. It’s like a small city.’

Doc smiled a little sadly. ‘It’s more than that. Bright minds, people in their prime – do you know how many people meet their spouse here, hell, even I married my college sweetheart, for a little while at least. There was once so much friendship and love here, so many ideas. All gone. They were working on all kinds of amazing cures in that lab, and now we’re scrabbling over this.’ He said, digging the small bag of aspirins out of his pocket once more.

They lapsed into silence for a few moments before both speaking at once.

‘There must be more ammo around here somewhere. I saw an outdoor shooting range round the back, I’m gonna check it out.’

‘The _lockers._ I didn’t check any of the lockers in the range. Must be a couple of bags back in there.’

Doc laughed. ‘Ok, kid. The coast seems pretty clear, you go looking there and I’m going back inside. I’ll meet you back right here in twenty minutes.’

10K returned from his search only three shells richer, and sat back on the grass to wait. He kept waiting until time and nerves drove him back to the locker room, which was as empty and silent as a grave.

‘Shit.’ He whispered to himself, drawing a knife and putting his back to a wall, the labyrinthine room suddenly more menacing than it had seemed before.

 

5.

Doc woke up face to face with Zs, yelling – or trying to yell – through the tape over his mouth,

He only calmed down very slightly as he realised they were sitting next to him, all on the same side of a desk, chained and tied, their hands nailed to the desk with pens tied to the underside, fingers clawing at the table top.

 ‘So glad you’re awake, Doctor.’

Doc turned his head sharply following the noise, wincing in the process as a head injury made its presence known, and as the tape was ripped from his mouth. Through the stars the searing pain blurred his eyes with, he saw a familiar face.

‘Rob? What the fuck is going on here?’ He said, gesturing to his left as best he could without getting in range of their teeth or nails.

‘You cannot _imagine_ how long it took me to get them in place. Luckily none of them had left the faculty library, so they were easy enough to find.’

‘Why the hell do you even have them here?’ He went on, vaguely trying to piece together his most recent memories into a functioning explanation for how he’d gotten here.

‘They’re my examiners.’ Rob scoffed, as it if were the most obvious thing in the world.

‘Examiners.’

‘For my thesis. I’ve finished it, finally.’ He said, beaming. ‘In a way it was easier now, much less distraction.’

‘And you want… them… to examine it.’ Doc went on slowly, trying to fully understand the words he was saying.

‘Obviously it’d look better if some of them were external, but I couldn’t exactly write and ask anyone could I? It was a bit of a blessing when you got here. Sure, your doctorate probably wasn’t in social sciences, but I can’t be too picky these days, can I?’

‘Oh, hell. I’m not- er, I’m… not able to ask good questions if I haven’t seen the thing, am I?’

‘Fair point. You’ve got half an hour.’ He said, snatching up a disgusting pile of papers and releasing one of Doc’s hands.

‘Right. Half an hour.’ Doc replied weakly, cradling his head in one hand.

‘I’d make sure they’re pretty thoughtful questions.’

Looking sideways at the hands nailed next to him, he didn’t need an explanation of what might happen otherwise.

 

6.

10K continued his search quickly and quietly, the buildings around him suddenly looming taller and more menacing than they had done with Doc by his side. He’d swept both buildings and their entire route through the college with no sign of either his friend or their host. He was beginning to panic slightly; Doc wouldn’t just wander off like that and leave him like that. Unwelcome thoughts of having to continue this journey without him invaded his mind, and he was almost relieved to be distracted from this by the sound of Addy and Murphy screaming. He sprinted towards the noise, just in time to see the two of them hopping up and down madly on what appeared to be two possessed slippers, Warren firmly barring the door to the building behind them.

‘Shoot them!’ Murphy shouted, noticing his presence, and pointing down at the two balls of fur still zipping around, continuing his demented footwork. Addy, meanwhile, had given up and dashed up to the top of the stairs.

‘I’m not wasting ammo on- is that a _squirrel_?’ 10K said.

‘You would if it was one of them!’ Murphy hissed, pointing at the two women.

10K merely nodded in agreement as he got out two small knives, throwing them in quick succession and ending the farce. He walked straight past Murphy, who had fallen to the ground to tend to what appeared to be bites on his ankles, towards the other two, who sat on the steps looking visibly shaken.

‘What-’ He began.

‘-the lab animals. We forgot about the lab animals.’ Warren replied brusquely, her tone brooking no further discussion.

‘We’re just lucky Murphy was in the back.’ Addy went on. Murphy glared at her but said nothing.

‘Not just that- you’re lucky they weren’t experimenting on apes too.’ He replied, enjoying the unusual look of fear on the man’s face.

‘Where’s Doc?’ Warren asked, and 10K’s face suddenly fell, reminded of his reason for being in this part of the campus.

‘I don’t know. He’s vanished.’

‘What?’ Warren said, regaining her composure and standing up again.

10K quickly explained the situation.

‘I don’t understand. This doesn’t make sense. If he’s been attacked by someone else living here, why not you too? Or if he’s turned, why is he hiding? It’s not like a Z at all.’

‘He hasn’t been turned.’ 10K said, a little shakily.

‘We’ll keep on looking. You haven’t been everywhere yet.’ Addy said, snaking an arm around his shoulder. Through her sleeve, the boy could feel that she was still trembling.

They heard a loud groan in the near distance. 10K immediately began sprinting towards it, not even seeing Warren’s attempt to grab his arm. With a sigh, she gestured to the others and they all followed him as best they could.

 

7.

Just as Warren had tried to warn the boy, by the time they had located the source of the noise, any element of surprise was long gone. They opened the door of one of the exam halls, each taking in a different bit of the bizarre tableau before them; with a sigh of relief, 10K’s eyes fell on a still-living – _reading?_ – Doc, Warren and Murphy’s on the mortar board-wearing Zs unconvincingly imitating an interview panel, and Addy’s on Rob, who seemed to be standing behind Doc with a knife in his hand.

‘Did you just find him?’ She said, hoping to be convinced that they had just interrupted their host at an awkward moment as he was releasing Doc from someone else’s trap. Her hopes were dashed as Doc began to shake his head and speak, his words cut short by the hilt of the knife hitting his head.

They were close enough to see the long, hand-written manuscript Doc was holding in his hands, some pages of which had spilled over the desk. Among them Addy spotted what she recognised to be a thesis title page.

‘Is this-‘ She began.

‘My life’s work. It started out as a study of campus sub cultures but, as you can imagine, it’s had to be revised a bit in recent years. But it’s _finally_ ready to show to my panel.’ He said, smiling gleefully as he gestured to the row in front of him.

For once they were all caught short, even Murphy, who only started to laugh in disbelief.

Rob’s face twisted with rage.

‘You don’t understand, _none_ of you understand. I don’t have any happy memories; I didn’t really lose anything when it happened. I’d already lost it all to that thing.’ He screeched, pointing at the mouldering manuscript on the table in front of Doc. ‘For years I scraped by, pouring my heart and soul into it, working every hour of the day and most of the night, losing the people close to me one by one, until all I had was my fortnightly call home and my meetings with my supervisor.’

He paused a second to get his breath back, resting the knife almost casually on Doc’s shoulder.

‘But it was fine, cause it was nearly over. So nearly over. And it was gonna be _worth it._ I had a really good shot at a tenure-track position. Everything’d pay off. I knew my exam board, I’d been working them for months.’ He said, before launching himself at the zombie trio at the desk and shouting in their faces. ‘Until you had the _audacity_ to get turned.’  

‘Yep, pretty selfish of them.’ Murphy said.

‘They are academics, after all.’ Rob muttered.  

‘You know what the worst thing is? That my first thought when the whole fucking mess was explained to me was – well, that’s made the entire thesis out of date.’

As he had continued speaking, Warren had begun, very slowly, to get closer to the table. The moment he was out of his reverie he spotted her, tutting and holding the knife very deliberately back to Doc’s throat.

‘Don’t think I won’t use it if you get too close.’ He said, his sudden calmness more unnerving than the anger. Addy was suddenly struck by two things; the utter certainty that he’d killed before, and an inconsistency with the story he’d told them earlier that day.

‘You weren’t always alone, were you.’ She said quietly. It was not a question.   

‘Of _course_ not! Do you really think that at a college which had one of the highest ranked Medieval re-enactment societies _and_ several NRA championship competitors, there’d only be one survivor? How stupid are you all? No, there were nearly 40 of us. And of course, there’s been a few since then.’ 

‘Well then how-‘

‘Rat poison. Not exactly hard to get hold of around here, and we cooked dinners on rotation. Just had to wait until my turn. We were in the arts building then. You’re lucky none of you went foraging in there.’

She thought back to how they had found him that very morning, sleeping more peacefully than anyone else they’d come across on their bloody, wearying odyssey. The unfairness of it stuck in her throat like bile, as she choked back outrage that he was impervious to the guilt which should have torn him apart, while she had barely slept in days, and had not been able to avoid Mack’s accusing eyes even in her brief periods of unconsciousness.

‘Why?’ she asked, not wanting to hear the answer.

‘It was pretty simple. They were stopping my work. Said that the only good Z was a dead one, said I was _weird_ for trying to study them, and ordered me to stop. Ordered, not asked! I couldn’t let them take the chance away from me. Besides, it’s easier to hide when there’s just one of you. I was only trying to keep myself safe.’ He said with a casual shrug, as if it were just some theoretical act of Darwinism, rather than mass murder.

‘You could have left! Gone set up a base somewhere else and got on with your… studies.’ Warren broke in.

‘But I probably wouldn’t have made it very far. Safer to-‘

They’d never seen her move so fast, even in their closest shaves with Zs. She closed the remaining distance between herself and the desk and launched herself at the man before he even had a chance to move, knocking him to the floor and wrenching the knife from his hands with an unearthly shriek. He had barely even started pleading before she brought the knife down, stabbing him over and over again. No one moved for the time it took her to wear herself out. Finally, she slumped down, exhausted, next to her handiwork. As 10K checked on Doc, Warren slowly came around the other side and gingerly sat down beside her friend.

‘He’s dead. Why don’t you put down the knife?’ She said gently, reaching out her hand.

‘You don’t get to do that to other people.’ She spat at the corpse, as if she had not heard, though she handed the thing over anyway. ‘You don’t get to choose what happens to them.’ She continued, shaking her head over and over again. After a couple of minutes she stopped, and after a couple more stood up again.

‘Sorry Doc, I nearly got your head cut off there.’ She said with a sheepish smile, in contrast to her hands, which were wiping blood off one another on the edge of Rob’s clothes.

‘Well, you didn’t.’ He said, shrugging good-naturedly. ‘No harm done. But all the same, I vote we get out of here right now.’

 

8.

They stuck around only long enough to raid the food store and bandage Doc and Murphy’s wounds properly, before setting off briskly back into the hills, and not stopping for a break for several hours.

‘So, what did you make of our little college trip?’ Addy said to Warren, after several silent minutes of a shared watch.  

‘Well, Doc’s left empty handed, 10K only got a handful of bullets, and Murphy got his feet bitten to hell. What about you?’ Warren asked, squatting down next to Addy.

She looked back over the campus, still visible in the distance. It was just as outwardly tranquil as when they had arrived, if infinitely less enticing. Therein lay the answer to Warren’s question; the illusion was gone. That place was only a collection of buildings, full of festering flesh and madness, a parody of the community that had once lived there. There was nothing but trouble to be gained from regressing into the past, at least for now. At least until they got a vaccine out of Murphy. There would be time to mourn afterwards. To mourn for herself, and for Mack, and the countless people they’d met and lost along the way. To feel the full measure of her regret for joining the Sisters of Mercy. But this was not the time.  

‘I’m good. We’d better get moving again.’

She stood up and hoisted her pack onto her shoulder, ready to set off once more.


End file.
